The Eating Freely Program

How does The Eating Freely Program Work?

Eating Freely is a highly structured program, combining both one to one therapeutic support and online support to help client separate their food from their feelings, and effectively deal with both – physically, mentally and emotionally.

Our Therapists can work with clients in person or online, and partner with an Eating Freely Nutritional Therapist who also support the client - specifically around two key areas:

2. Reshaping their relationship with their food, challenging their food rules, discussing eating patterns in the context of how it makes them feel physically and offering structured practical support to the clients to help them change old, unhelpful patterns.

Meanwhile, our Therapists work with clients using four integrated pillars of evidence based treatment - CBT, Neuroscience and Mindfulness/Self-Compassion, with some underlying work on the past and more unconscious drivers - psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Our Therapists work with the client through 12 structured sessions, plus the client's two Nutritional Therapy sessions, over about 20 weeks to comprehensively tackle and resolve their disordered eating, leaving them free to enjoy food again. Not only that, but many clients find the program sufficient to 'bury their dead' - having resolved long standing issues that had simply never been addressed.

If you would like to find out about training with us, check out the relevant training page for you on our website.

In Week two, you will also attend your first session with your Eating Freely Nutritional Therapist - this can be face to face or online. You'll begin your gut rehabilitation program and get your personalised 'Eating Plan for Life' during this session.

After 4-6 sessions attending weekly, you will be seeing positive changes in how you are eating, a reduction in bingeing and you will be starting to feel a lot better. You will then move to fortnightly sessions, giving you more time between sessions to put your learning into practice.

Around week 8, you'll have a second session with your Eating Freely Nutritional Therapist to make sure you can stay on track with Eating Freely, and make any necessary changes to your individual program based on your own requirements. We take your recovery very personally!

You’ll also have access to our Secret Facebook Group for additional support from other program participants, and Eating Freely Therapists to answer questions, give feedback etc.

Your 'No more diets' resolution

What a gift to give yourself this year, the gift of true freedom around food, forever!

The problem has never been that you just cannot stick to a diet, or you just haven't found the right diet, the problem IS dieting.

Dieting sets you up for a 'deprivation' mindset, the feeling of 'I can't have...' or even 'I don't deserve...';

Dieting tells you every single hour of every day that you are "not good enough" the way you are;

Dieting reduces your entire self-worth to a number - on a scale, or a label;

Dieting triggers bingeing and overeating. Fact!

Dieting never works long term. If it did, you wouldn't have to keep going on a diet!

It is time to accept the fact that there is more to your failure to diet and your emotional and binge eating than just lack of willpower. It is far more connected to how you feel about yourself, and when in your past you learned how to eat to 'self-soothe'.

When you unpack all of this with a trained professional, and get the correct professional support from a Registered Nutritional Therapist to rehabilitate your gut, and your relationship with food - that is when you'll see true, permanent change.

What will the Program Cover?

The Eating Freely Program is unique in that employs a combination of CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy), Nutritional Therapy, Neuroscience and Mindfulness/Self-Compassion throughout the program to give you a great toolbox of resources you can share with clients, along with online support and resources for both your clients, and you!

CBT Tools and Resources

We give you concrete, usable tools that help clients significantly reduce bingeing, emotional eating and overeating episodes. This puts the client in control of their binge eating from the get go, reducing their food/eating distress straight away.

Nutritional Rehabilitation

The Program also includes two sessions with an Eating Freely Nutritional Therapist for each client. When you eat the way our clients eat over a period of years, it inevitably impacts the gut which contributes hugely to the ‘brain fog’, lack of motivation, low mood and completely skewed hunger/not hungry cues. Clients receive and individualised plan to reset their gut, body and brain, so they feel much better, physically and mentally, within as little as 2-3 weeks. Later in the program have have a follow-up session to develop their new Eating Plan for Life... and not a diet in sight!

We separate the food and nutrition work from the therapy work for two reasons:

Registered Nutritional Therapists have an extensive knowledge of all things health, way beyond what we could reasonably teach to Therapists and Coaches. Clients get significant support not only around their emotional/binge eating but also around co-occurring conditions they may have, something a Counsellor, Psychotherapist or Coach could not nor should not ever try to address. Common co-occurring conditions in our clients include endometriosis, PCOS, underactive thyroid, gallbladder disease/removal, inflammatory conditions from fibromyalgia to colitis, and others. They need specialist support, and our Nutritional Therapists can offer them that support.

We find clients can experience anything from resistance to anger after their Nutritional Therapy session(s), and they NEED a safe space to work through that - this is all part of their processing. So we believe the clients need to be able to return to their therapist / coach and work through that experience, safely and without judgement, as well as break down the changes to manageable, achievable steps.

Neuroscience Education

We teach clients how their brain works and why it can be their worst enemy when trying to change or break bad, unhealthy and unhelpful habits. Clients often experience huge relief when they can finally let go of that eternal message of "you have no willpower", and understand that they can break free of both their old behaviours, and dial down that negative, critical voice in their head. It's just a matter of becoming aware of what their brain is doing, and why. With awareness comes choice.

Mindfulness and Deep Self-compassion

Mindfulness and Deep Self Compassion are critical to our client's real, permanent success. By bringing them back into the present moment, they can choose to behave differently, challenge their unhelpful thoughts, learn how to calm themselves and reduce their anxiety. This helps to reduce episodes of emotional eating and bingeing, and changes the 'mind chatter' from criticism, to compassion.

True self-love is the ultimate goal, and we may not get there straight away but for clients who are ready - the transformational change lies here. Truly letting go of what no longer serves them, leaving the past behind and moving forward with a new underlying energy of love instead of fear... this is where the magic can happen for clients. It is a privilege to witness it.

Our program offers clients a real opportunity to finally break free from the cycle of restricted/diet led eating, and bingeing/overeating, and finally learn how to eat well, with no deprivation, in a way that truly supports health, wellbeing and weight loss in a very healthy, sustainable way.

Interested in training with us? Just click on the relevant training page for you!

We welcome applications from fully qualified Psychotherapists, Counsellors and Health Coaches who are members of recognised bodies.